“@DianaFrance

I have no problem with taxation for universal serives like the NHs and Education.

I do have a problem with taxation simply for redistribution purposes because one person happens to earn more than another, beyond a basic safety net provision.

That you regard it as fair for the south to be the people to squeeze money out of to fund your poor destitute north of the borough shows why we'd like to be in Surrey and not Croydon.

As to your view it's all done and dusted, the front page of the Advertiser this week carries the story that Ken Livingstone has said he'd be happy for the south of Croydon to have a vote to move back to Surrey. Unlikely as that may be, it seems we are a small step closer to the south waving goodbye to your north Croydon for good.

Oh and when I move out of Croydon (if you even get me to accept i live in it in the first place) it will be a lot further out than Tandridge. My parents were part of the irginal white flight out of the "inner London suburbs", I'll be ensuring I don't need to move more than once to achieve the same thing by getting a long way out from Croydon.”

“If I lived in Streatham, I'd put St.Reatham on my address.”

“I Lived In Co-Wicklow for a year and Co-Wexford for 10 Years and the Problems we had Because of No Post codes. IE, Buying on line, banking, you name it.
After that, I REALLY Don't Care what my post code is here. As long as it lets me do what I want to do.
I'm No Snob and Do not mind being a CR0 Address, Hasn't harmed me in any way.”

“Oh just rereading my post - would like to make it clear that Croydon was never a part of the London Postal District, which is why it doesn't have an SW/SE postcode. The London Postal District has never matched the area of "London" at any time either, whether it was the City of London (before 1889), the County of London (after 1889) or Greater London (after 1965) - this might go some way to explain why parts of London do not have a so-called "London postcode".”

“"several questions arise:
Streatham and Norbury are in London - post codes SW16
Croydon is in London - why didn't we live at SW47 9ST - why CR0 9ST"

Ivor_Shed - to be fair, postcodes don't necessarily correspond to where a place is and they weren't ever meant to be, they're simply a way for Royal Mail to make it easier to sort and post letters and parcels. Croydon doesn't necessarily have to have a SW or SE postcode, there was probably a legitimate reason for Croydon to specifically have a CR0 postcode and if you check Wikipedia - http://tinyurl.com/742anvf - you'll find out the historical reason - when the Royal Mail experimented with postcodes that they were planning to apply nationally, Croydon was the second area - Norwich was the first - to get an experimental postcode, which has since stuck. The London postcodes (N, NW, SW, SE, W, WC, E and EC) were simply matched to the already-existing London postal districts (http://tinyurl.com/2cpob2) - which originally covered an area that was in other counties but since 1965 now is in Greater London.

The Royal Mail database of addresses and postcodes isn't the authority of where a place is, the Ordinance Survey maps and the county council documentation are.

I completely agree with you on your post, especially on putting whatever you like on addresses. Estate agents are particularly notorious for doing this, for obvious reasons.

Your anecdote about France reminds me of Ireland - IIRC they don't even use postcodes, apart from in Dublin. In rural areas, they don't even have house numbers, so you literally have an address that consists of "Townland, Town, County" and that's it. Despite this, same as with you, the local postman knows where everyone lives anyway so it's not a problem.”

“several questions arise:
Streatham and Norbury are in London - post codes SW16
Croydon is in London - why didn't we live at SW47 9ST - why CR0 9ST

All you need for a UK address is house number and postcode - so why does everything I buy on the internet have town and county as mandatory fields - is it because I am clever enough to get my Visa details correct but can't be trusted to do a postcode?

put whatever you like on the envelope - the Royal Mail will ignore most of it. We used Selsdon rather than the official South Croydon. Other friends insisted on adding Shirley Hills in their address as that implied higher status.

here in France we only got road names about 5 years ago - and not all are named yet. Our house number is 456, next door is 446 and next door to that is 398 - that is how many meters our house is from the start of the road - there are no house numbers in between. The postman knows everyone anyway so we get mail even if it is addressed to the wrong house.

Happy days..........”

“This literally is an 'age-old debate'. Croydon is in Greater London, has been since 1965, as pointed out above. Estate agents, business owners and snobs like to write 'Surrey' at the end of their addresses to make it sound 'nicer', but as someone pointed out in the comments you could write 'Venus' because the Royal Mail doesn't need a 'county' in order to find the address.”

“DianaFrance I am happy to pay for healthcare and education, we are all responsible for that for the very good reasons you stated. Otherwise we end up like USA where there is an increasingly wide gap between rich and poor.

I object to my taxes filling the pockets of the lazy underclass which seems to be growing, and that especially applies to north Croydon. Why should I fund their lifestyles and let them sit around all day? Feels like a raw deal to me.”

“Unfortunately privilege brings responsibility, Guy and ncb. I cringe when I hear people object to paying for education when they have no children, or hospitals when they have never used one and pay for private medical insurance. This is what a civilised society is all about - we don't rest in a private hospital while someone with less income dies for lack of medical care, not any more. Likewise we were educated and need the next generations to be educated to look after us when we can no longer look after ourselves or when, not if, we fall ill.

If we made our town into two towns, the poorer North and the affluent South, the North Council would not be able to charge high enough taxes to fund its workload, and the South would be able to waste money or economise while maintaining higher standards.

It's an interesting puzzle. Why should you fund anyone else? How do you calculate the cost of disposing of your rubbish, cleaning your street and only those that you use, maintaining the public spaces where you walk and relax but not the others, educating your children but not the rest of the class, and so on.

Well, the lines were drawn around Croydon and we live within them, in Greater London rather than in Surrey. If you don't like it, perhaps your next move should be to Tandridge?”

“Well at least our taxes are not used to fund the rest of the country and Scotland. Oh, wait a minute.....

It's the decent folk of the north I pity. Paying huge amounts of taxes and getting little in return from the council. Perhaps all the workers in the north should jack their jobs in and sign onto the dole. At least they would get something back from the council!”